My latest and closest encounter with Eugene Domingo was when we watched her as Bona at the PETA Theatre Center in New Manila. Again, I didn't do any research before watching the show. I just knew that it was a re-make of a Nora Aunor movie about an obsessed fan. I was wondering whether the play was a comedy (because I know Eugene Domingo as a comedic actress) or drama (because Nora Aunor is drama, right?).

Well, the first half of the play was pure comedy while the second half was pure drama. And Eugene Domingo? She was truly amazing. She's a star!!

Friday, September 21, 2012

I usually regret buying cookbooks because most of the recipes are stuff I can't or don't want to do. An exception is Cake Keeper Cakes by Lauren Chattman. I want to make all the cakes in this book. :-)

We've been making her Super-Delicious Whole Wheat Carrot cake. The page with the recipe for this cake started with "I never liked carrot cake because of its spongy, soggy texture. And the cream cheese and confectioner's sugar frosting slathered on top didn't help." Aha, if she's out to address those things, I thought, I'd like to give carrot cake another try.

Since we prefer cupcakes I made it as cupcakes instead of a cake. We did away with the walnuts and dark raisins and just loaded up with, ahem, chocolate chips. :-) I also liked that I didn't need to bring out the mixer for this.

Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 350F. Coat pan with cooking spray & dust with flour.
2. Whisk butter & sugar in a large bowl. Then whisk in eggs and then milk. Then stir in everything else except the carrot and combine well. Then stir in the carrots and chocolate chips.
3. Pour into pan. Bake until its golden. (I never know how long. We just keep checking. ;p)

***** ***** *****
Tito Ernie told me Maya will have a new product coming out this October.... tadah... Whole Wheat Carrot cake in a box! (I think just add carrots na lang.) That's going to make things even simpler. We're so looking forward to it. :-)

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Mananambal, manghihilot, Chinese meds, natural meds. I'm not averse to those things. When we were young, we always got a massage whenever we got sick. I'd see my grandmothers use aloe vera on their hair or chew malunggay seeds. And there was always someone boiling some leaves (like guava) for something.

My favorite is the alugbati leaf. Pound it a little, put over matag tiki (boil) and abracadabra the boil/pus will go away. When Rocky and I were newly married, he had a boil on his leg. I forced him to let me put alugbati leaf on it and we covered it with bandage. He was so surprised to see his boil gone when we opened up the bandage again. :-)

This year, Marion's had 2 bouts of really bad cough. I don't feel great about giving her too many different kinds of medicine (steroids especially) and so was happy when my mom learned about flying lizards for asthma. She had many friends tell her that it worked for their kids. Our natural medicine pedia also called it a cure. And so we started giving it to Marion secretly.

I tried it... but didn't taste anything. (Hehe, I was feeling squeamish so I didn't put too much and I just swallowed it. ;p)

On my spoon. With flash.

Once more without flash but blurry.

There's no recommended dosage so we just hid a pinch or 2 in every spoonful of food we gave Marion. The only other instructions mom came across for this are
a) Do not tell the person that you're giving it to them. (That makes sense, right?), and
b) Give it after a full moon or only when the moon is waning. (Does this make sense?)

I certainly hope it will keep Marion from getting sick again. I suspect that the air quality in the city doesn't help at all and so will probably discuss how to strengthen her lungs more with our doctor.

***** *****

Okay, from matag tiki (literally, eye of a lizard) which is what we call boils, to powdered flying lizards now I also use marka tiki. (Why lizards???). My sister told me her son's yaya requested for marka tiki as a remedy for teething. She also said that it might be the reason why her son is used to taking or being given weird tasting stuff (medicine). For that reason, I wanted to give it a try with Marco.

This is what mom got for me (Metro Gaisano pharmacy):

It came in a yellow box which we threw away before I remembered to take a photo. The label didn't say "Marka Tiki", but the list of ingredients says it has lizard in it, too. Maybe around Php30.(The Metro Gaisano pharmacy in Market! Market! doesn't have it.)

Sunday, September 16, 2012

Just recently I started a new "play" with Marion. I needed to distract her from obsession with "baking candies in her candy factory" and so thought up of another activity. I'd get her to read and act out parts of the book we're reading. It's a riot!! :-)

I'm really the one who has the most fun hamming it up. Rocky sometimes indulges me and joins in. My pent up frustration as a performer plus some bossiness equals a very exacting and strict director. I'm most particular about getting the facial expressions right. ;-p

And I found the perfect book/s for this activity. Enter Mo Willems. I first knew of his Pigeon books. We just have one (to date)-- Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late. I love reading it and doing Pigeon's dramatic monologue for Marion. :-) But what really struck me are the simple (maybe not) illustrations that show Pigeon's every emotion and expression.

Instead of getting more of the Pigeon books, we started getting the Elephant & Piggie books. Having (at least) two main characters makes it more fun to act out. :-) We have a few of the books (and I'm fighting the urge to compulsively collect/get all books). My favorite is Today I Will Fly! (wherein Piggie tells Gerald that she would fly). There's also I'm Invited to a Party! (which we do using props :D). Happy Pig Day is also really fun, too.

Marion and I love copying the postures and facial expressions of the characters like these ones--

I want to collect all the Elephant and Piggie books!!

I've succeeded in distracting Marion from her obsession with her "candy factory". Or she's learned to just ask someone else ("Daddy likes going to the candy factory.") to play that with her. Since she knows I don't like playing with pretend candies anymore she'll just invite me to be a bird or a pirate with her. :-)

Oh no :( We're not gaining weight as much as we'd want him to. Marco never seemed to be a voracious eater (drinker, milk drinker ;p) and now that we've introduced cereal and some other solids (avocado and sweet potato) he prefers those over milk! We need to cut down on solids first just to make sure we get in more of the grow, grow, grow milk!

We had a couple of firsts this month. Some not great at all.
* August 22, 2012- First fever with cough which we treated with natural medicines until September 3.
* August 25- First tooth (lower left central incisor) starting to appear.
* August 27- Second tooth (lower right central incisor) came out.
* August 28- First (and last, I hope) sore thumb (left) from thumbsucking with new teeth. (I think since then he's learned not to hurt his thumbs anymore.

Dr. Pia checked his ear and it looked like he might be getting over (or just started) an ear infection. We checked back after a few days and there was no inflammation anymore. We're taking care of that little bit of mucus with natural medicines.

Maybe this should be reserved for the next month update but--
* Sept. 10, 2012- First time to push forward
* Sept. 11, 2012- First time to really crawl forward, tummy up
* Sept. 14, 2012- First time I saw him tripod sit (He didn't put himself in that position though.)

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

I wanted to take Marion to watch Brave. She's never been to a movie theatre so I took her to the mall, asked the attendant if we could go in (she said yes) and showed Marion what it was inside. She was a bit nervous but didn't insist on going out. We were just in there a minute or so. When we got home, Rocky and I asked her again if she wanted to watch a movie with us. She consistently said "No." ("Movies are for adults only."). I didn't push for it because I figured the "scary" scenes in Brave would be too scary for her. (She gets scared of Pete in Mickey Mouse Clubhouse or the troll in Dora.)

When her school invited us to watch Wizard of Oz, I got tickets for her. I wasn't expecting too much. I prepared myself to leave the theatre if she started to get too scared. And so there we were. Her eyes sparkled with amazement as she watched the show! She was so kilig! During the intermission, she thought the show had ended and started to whine a little that she wanted to leave already. But when the lights dimmed and the show started again, she sat back and watched.

At some parts, I'd explain to her what was going on but I mostly left her, sitting at the edge of her seat to watch. She'd have been scared of the Wicked Witch but the presence of Glinda the Good Witch made it all okay. I thought she might be scared of the flying monkeys (she's so scared of bats!) but she said she liked their colorful costume. When I asked her which character she wanted to be she said she wanted to be the Lion. Not Dorothy? No, not Dorothy.

I got her this bag after the show.

Then last Sunday we took her to watch the Disney show in Araneta. Before we went in she said, "I'm excited!" :-)

Of course, I made Rocky shell out Php310 for some cotton candy + Mickey Mouse hat. ;p

She doesn't really know Cinderella or the Toy Story characters and so was most happy to see Tigger and Goofy.

I think she's ready to watch a movie. Are there any movies coming up soon that'd be a good movie for her? :-)

About Me

They don't offer a degree on life, on being a mother or being a wife. I'm lucky I have great examples and resources around me, so I'm learning as I go along.
I like writing notes. I like making lists. I like scribbling on margins. I have notes in my head that are waiting to be written and scrapbooks that I've yet to put together. And even more recipes to try and sewing projects to get done.
I like taking care of my family but sometimes it stresses me out. So I constantly remind myself that I don't need to be perfect, but just be the best person I can be.
I like to keep things organized (or at least try to keep things organized). Hopefully this blog will help me do just that. :-)